Behaviour and recovery of human adenovirus from tropical sediment under simulated conditions.

This study assessed the contributions of pH and organic matter (OM) on the recovery of infectious human adenovirus 5 (HAdV-5) and genome copies (GCs) in waters that were artificially contaminated with tropical soil. The use of a mathematical equation was proposed based on the flocculation index of clay to assess the recovery of total GCs in these controlled assays. The results suggest that solids in the water reduced the viral genome copy loads per millilitre (GC · mL(-1)) and viral infectivity.